– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
[[ New Quest: All-Out Assault ]]
Description: You've been assigned three locations to hit for the night. Strike hard, and strike fast. Neutralize all hostiles and expose their crimes to the world.
Time Limit: 8 hours.
Objectives:
[1] Clear 1 location with minimal issues.
[2] Clear 2 locations with minimal issues.
[3] Clear 3 locations with minimal issues.
Penalties:
• 1 of 3 objectives failed: no item rewards.
• 2 of 3 objectives failed: no item rewards, halved EXP rewards.
• All 3 objectives failed: no rewards, and Batman bans you and Maxine from vigilantism. Resistance from this will make him a hostile party, as well as some members of the bat-family.
Rewards:
[1] 1,000 EXP; one D-grade item or one Basic non-class ability of your choosing.
[2] 1,500 EXP; one D-grade item or one Basic non-class ability of your choosing.
[3] 2,000 EXP; one C-grade item or one Intermediate non-class ability of your choosing.
– ৹ – ৹৹◎৹৹ – ৹ –
...
It was the first night of Lucian's official affiliation with Batman. His first real job with them gave him three facilities to hit in one night.
...
The first of them was easy. It was a restaurant operated by a mob, who collaborated with the Donovans. As such, Batman told the Manticore not to worry about property damage. It had no problem simply crashing their proverbial party.
It opened with a huge, unstable ki blast launched from the sky as it glided in. The mobsters within were thrown around by the resulting shockwave, and their weapons and armor were soon torn through with little resistance.
During that opening fight, an idea came. While the remaining mobsters holed up in their restaurant's upper floors and back rooms, the Manticore formed a shadow clump using Blackwhip to hide something.
From nowhere, It summoned a crackling blade. That weapon turned into a thick and short sword, about as long as the Manticore's arm. The handle was stocky as well, and the handguard sprouted numerous spikes in place of the conventional bar. The blade shortened and took on a rounder shape, with an inverted curve. This resulted in the weapon looking like it was carved from a beast's giant claw.
Having done that, the Manticore used the sword as the tip for its tail, formed with tendrils that sprouted form the bottom of its spine.
It charged back in with actual electricity crackling behind it. Coupled with Cloak of Distortion and Mask of Fear, it left every enemy confused and afraid as their forces were dismantled.
It also swiped some money and packed meals on the way out.
...
[ Quest: "All-Out Assault" has been updated. ]
[ Objective [1] has been completed. ]
[ 1,000 EXP has been granted. ]
[ Acquired Telescopic Blade [D]. ]
[ ... ]
[ Stole $10,893 from the mob. ]
[ 2,000 EXP cap has been reached. ]
[ Halving the next thousand for a total of 2,500 EXP. ]
[ No more EXP can be earned through wealth until the next sunrise. ]
[ EXP to next level: 905. ]
...
The next target was a sizeable pound. As things stood, the Manticore couldn't fight ruthlessly like every other time it had. Stealth was of utmost importance.
Instead of swooping in with a loud and bombastic entry, it stalked around and took account of the facilities first. With every opening, every person, and every vantage point mapped out, it made its move.
The Manticore traveled noiselessly on all fours, stalking through cover and blind spots. Whenever it had a chance, it snatched people into the shadows and silenced them, draining their energy until they fell unconscious. Once the exterior was clear, it was time to move in.
Using access tools lifted from the people it had taken down, it entered the building. Dogs barked and cats yowled as it passed, clawing at their cages for freedom. It didn't cut any of them free. Letting them loose en masse might only get them hurt as they ran. Instead, as instructed during the brief, it contacted Oracle and had her arrange for their rescue.
It soon proceeded past the normal part of the building. When it finally reached where the poacher-smugglers kept their illegal exotic imports, [Danger Sense] flared. The Manticore dodged out of the way just before hidden panel doors opened up from the sides of the hallways. As soon as they did, armed men emerged from recesses behind them and opened fire.
It had to retreat into the previous corridor, the animals suddenly silenced. It would have been worrying had the Manticore not heard their whimpers and micromovements.
Just as the first volley of bullets stopped, more panels popped off to reveal additional enemies to fight. It was chaotic, and the Manticore knew that it was being herded somewhere. Unwilling to escape from that place, it decided to play along...
It was pushed deeper and deeper into the building by bare misses, which it never bothered to dodge as [Danger Sense] indicated that none of them would hit. Soon, it was in some sort of meeting room with the furniture pushed aside, surrounded.
It stopped in the center of that room, where a solitary lightbulb hung from the ceiling. Harsh white light beamed down from it, concentrated by the cone attached above. Most of the room was nearly pitch-dark, while the Manticore was circled in by its own shadow in the near-blinding light.
From the armed crowd, one man stepped forward. His head was shaven, face tattooed with elephantine imagery. Built like a fantasy berserker, he was clothed formally with one exception—the coat over his shoulders, made from a white lion's hide.
"Well, well, well..." drawled the cue ball. "Look what the cat dragged in. Nice jacket, by the way. Not as good as mine, though," he added smugly.
"Do we really have to waste time on a dialogue?" The Manticore spoke in such a bored voice that everyone but the peanut gallery's leader felt offended.
With a pleasant expression, 'Cue Ball' spoke jovially. "Man after my own heart! Never a dull moment."
From his belt, he drew an oversized revolver. Its cylinder was loaded with rounds far stronger than most pistols could handle. "You know, you've been a real problem for us lately."
He licked his teeth through a smile, and pressed the muzzle over where the Manticore's heart was. "Well, not anymore. Oh, and don't worry about the animals in the back. This room's sound-sealed."
B a n g !
The singular shot shook the air in the room, the noise bouncing off the walls. Everybody's ears rang as the Manticore was sent flying several feet away. It stayed standing for a few moments before toppling over, like a snowman in the summer heat.
"Well... that was anticlimactic," the smugglers' boss commented once the ringing in his ears stopped. "Toss him in the trash after you confirm his identity. We're sending him to his loved ones."
A pair of his men looked at each other and shrugged. One of them said, "If he even has any," and the other one laughed. After having a glare fixed at them, they both went to move.
Well, they certainly intended to, but their feet had been rooted in place. Seeing that, the rest of them checked—they were all similarly immobilized. Their legs, their arms, weapons—their everything.
By the time they looked back to their leader for orders, they found him wrapped up in a writhing black substance. The man within screamed and squirmed, muffled and utterly restricted. No matter how hard anybody tried to resist, nobody could move.
"Alright..." The Manticore rose from the floor, sounding hoarse and worse for wear. It bled from its chest, purple jacket blackened by red. Oddly, the blood only trickled as opposed to gushing like expected. Even on the floor, there was barely a tiny puddle where it had fallen.
"How good's your soundproofing?" it asked, head cocked. At the same time, a big, fat, flowered bullet fell from what should have been a wound that bled profusely. There was a pitch-dark void in there, which soon dissipated to reveal skin. Stained still by blood, its pigmentation was as purple as its clothing where it wasn't red.
Everyone struggled after what they just witnessed. They begged to be spared, desperately offered anything up in exchange for freedom. In response, the tendrils that held them pulled them ever closer to what they once thought was their prey.
"Oh well. I'll just trust the process or something."
The Manticore left that room behind with thirteen men crumpled to the floor, bleeding from their ears. The animals in the storage hall, separated by a long, insulated hallway, were perfectly safe and sound.
...
[ Quest: "All-Out Assault" has been updated. ]
[ Objective [2] has been completed. ]
[ 1,500 EXP has been granted. ]
[ Acquired Mothwing Cloak [D]. ]
[ ... ]
[ Stolen the following objects: ]
[ • Elephant Pistol [250 EXP] ]
[ • Custom El.Pistol Rounds x24 [240 EXP] ]
[ • Lionhide Jacket [150 EXP] ]
[ • Ivory Dagger [200 EXP] ]
[ • Bear Claw Necklace [150 EXP] ]
[ EXP to next level: 3,415. ]
[ Your level has risen from 19 to 20. ]
...
Lucian took some time to recover. He used ki circulation to accelerate the healing of his bashed-in ribs. Despite stacking a redundant amount of tendrils over a single point behind his jacket—on top of concentrated ki reinforcement—that bullet still managed to crush his bones. He was just glad that the poacher didn't go for his dome—the heart must have been a popular target for ego-kills.
In the end, he was just happy to know that the injury he sustained healed fast. As for his jacket, because it was keyed with the Cloak of Distortion's system ID, it mended itself with time similarly to how the subspace cleaned his equipment.
'Pretending to die after getting shot: 2/10 experience. Would not recommend. 6/10 opportunity for scarebait, though...'
[ That was fucking stupid, Luce. ]
'Yeah, I know... I'm sorry.'
[ You should be grateful I can't rat you out to Maxie. ]
To recover the energy he spent on that stunt, he dug into half his stash of stolen mafia food.
৹ ◎ ◉ ◎ ৹
Back in the Robinson Batcave, Maxie was being drilled by Orphan and Spoiler. Her first lessons were the basics of hand-to-hand combat. She took to their instructions like a fish to water, literally feeling like she was in her element.
In terms of combat ability, though her training partners still felt leagues away, she was visibly improving. Orphan kept schooling her through sheer skill alone, but she got further with every attempt. As for Spoiler, she would change tactics whenever Maxie got close to winning. This always set her back to square one, but it was a different tactic every time—subconsciously, she was picking up on adaptability.
"Man, you're too good at improvising," Max whined to Spoiler. "Can you, like, lose on purpose for once?"
"Nnnope~" Spoiler replied. "Well, maybe... what can you offer?"
"... you're asking me to bribe you?"
"Duh~ C'mon. You want a win? Make me give it to you."
Maxie dug around in her brain, expression twisting behind her mask. Then, the lightbulb moment. "I'll convince my partner to take you out on a joyride."
"Oh! Oh!" Spoiler hopped around, switching her feet like an excited kid. "He can fly, right?! Nightwing told me about it!"
Maxie's face grew more confident behind her mask. "Exactly. Now, you gonna let me win, or what?"
A purple-gloved finger waggled in her face. "I will, but you'll have to earn iiiit~"
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
৹ ◎ ◉ ◎ ৹
In one of the wealthier parts of Gotham's seedy districts, a casino nightclub was in shambles. It was a place that Aleck bought out years ago, to hold meetings with collaborators and keep them entertained. Now, bullet holes riddled the walls, furniture was reduced to scrap, and blood had been splattered every which way.
Decorating the space were unconscious bodies. They were all either bruised over, covered in cuts and slashes, or spasming from electricity. Sometimes, it was a combination of two or all of them.
In the midst of it all, one figure was in a standoff against a handful of others. The outnumbering side had four elite enforcers who were questioning their allegiances. At the forefront was their leader, who was a Venom soldier. His body was enlarged—grotesquely so—with his veins glowing green all over. Besides that, his skin discolored, foamy slobber dripped down his chin, and caustic-looking tears flowed from his bloodshot eyes.
"B-boss—" one of the enforcers reached out.
"HROARGH!!"
The leader lashed out, crushing nothing more than flooring. If that underling of his hadn't stumbled out of the way, he would have died.
"Last chance," the Manticore called out across the room. "I'll let y'all piss off right now, long as you turn yourselves in. Be a pain to hunt you down all over again later."
Deciding that they'd had enough of this life, all four threw down their weapons and bolted. Their leader, furious, lunged at them, only to have his momentum arrested by dark tendrils.
"Ap-ap-ap. Nooo," said the Manticore, as if scolding a misbehaving dog. "Bad. You stay."
With a mighty heave, it grabbed its own tendrils and swung them wide. This took the Venom soldier off his feet and sent him flying into a far wall. Though he sank deep into the rubble, leaping out was no problem.
He hit the floor running, launching ahead without a single thought in mind besides kill. The Manticore met his charge, matching his intensity, and they engaged in a fierce brawl. Fists flew and claws lashed out, numerous to one at a time.
It was a losing battle for the Venom soldier, though he did manage to keep his opponent on its feet. The Manticore felt the force behind its enemy's every blow, and so remained cautious. One misstep would cost it dearly.
Slowly, deliberately, it tore the enemy apart. While dodging one flurry of blows, it severed the tendons in one of the enemy's wrists. After another series of attacks, both hands were disabled.
The enemy's wounds mounted. He grew desperate. Eventually, after one hard-fought minute, the battle was over.
When the dust settled, the Venom soldier was left a helpless wailing heap on the floor. He was pinned down the Manticore's stinger, which just barely broke the skin over his stomach. He hacked up bile from his gullet while tears fell from his eyes, both mixed with blood.
The Manticore leaned down and put a hand on his chest. Soon, his consciousness began to fade. Before he fully disappeared into the darkness, clarity returned, and one last thought lingered.
'What did I just do to myself...?'
...
[ Quest: "All-Out Assault" has been completed. ]
[ Quest closed. ]
[ 2,000 EXP has been granted. ]
[ Acquired Mask of Fear [C]. ]
[ ... ]
[ Stolen $85,517 from the casino's criminal patrons. ]
[ Powerful enemy felled. ]
[ 400 EXP has been granted. ]
[ EXP to next level: 1,015. ]
...
Lucian left the scene and flew far away. After he absorbed that Venom soldier's lifeforce, he felt his control slipping. He only stayed long enough to repair that man's tendons before taking off to move somewhere secluded.
"Oracle?" he said, out of breath.
"I read you," she replied. "You sound really spent. Was the fight that bad?"
"No, no." He planted his ass on the ground, running his ki ragged to purge the mental influence of Venom. "Just caught the Venom rage when I stole that guy's energy. Dealing with it right now, but I should be fine."
"Tell me right away if you think you need a pickup," she advised. "Anyway... good job out there. Besides that dumb little stunt you pulled with the poachers. You could have died."
He grimaced behind his cowl. "Yeah... sorry about that."
"You almost made me call backup for you, you know? Do anything like that again, and I'm telling on you, especially to your girlfriend."
"Yes, ma'am..."
Oracle sighed through the comm link. "Well... it wasn't all bad, all things considered. Could've done without the excessive violence, but we're already used to that with Red Hood, so I guess I really can't complain."
"Oh yeah, I saw him in the conference earlier," Lucian recalled as he retrieved some food from his Utility Belt. "Isn't he like, a crime lord or something? He part of your 'family,' as Nightwing put it?"
"Yeah... and we love him despite his flaws," Oracle replied.
Someone clicked their tongue over the call. "Damn it, Oracle. I knew you kept my line open on purpose."
"Yes, yes. We know you love us too, tomato-head."
A snort expeditiously escaped Lucian, despite him desperately holding it back. It was followed by words that he had to laugh out. "Duuuude... she called you 'tomato-head!'"
"Man, shut your dumbass, kitty-cat!" Red Hood shot back.
Doubling down on being a little shit, Lucian went for the tease. "Oi... only Wraith's allowed to call me that. Or are you tryna get romantical with me?"
"... Fuck you."
"At least take him out to dinner first!" Oracle added to the ribbing.
৹ ◎ ◉ ◎ ৹
The once-opulent study had been thrashed. The destruction within was lit at the edges by the city outside, outlined in faint light while the rest was in shadow. Books lay scattered in pieces across the floor, and the bookshelves that once held them were reduced to scraps. The luxurious draperies that decorated the room were torn and tattered, and every single light had been broken into countless shards.
In the center of it all, Aleck stood over his desk that he'd just broken in half. Mist poured out of his mouth with every labored breath, his handsome face twisted in pure, hateful fury. The hazel color of his eyes had been replaced with gleaming electric blue, and the same sort of light poured out from his veins, visible through his skin.
Before him was another one of his young maids, down on the floor with her back pressed against a wall. She had wet herself at some point in his outrage, bracing herself with a clipboard as if it had any hope of protecting her.
Everything was gone. Damn near everything. All that he had left now was a handful of bases and two labs. The bats were taking their time before, and now they accelerate? Where did they even have that kind of power? Black Mask never said that their capabilities were anything like this.
"What. do. you. mean. 'They've been taken out'?"
She struggled to answer, bile threatening to rush up and out of her stomach. "I— I... th-the sponsors, sir, and our crews... they—"
Aleck was standing over her in a flash. "Speak with your chest, or I'll make you."
His threat had the opposite effect from what he wanted. The maid simply paled, voice stolen, and tears streamed down her face like waterworks.
Seeing that, Aleck ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed. "My sister just can't train you girls properly, can she?"
When the maid girl took a little too long to respond, he put his hand on her head. The light that burned from within him flared, and her pupils dilated. Her entire body relaxed, blood pressure dropping to normal. Her breathing evened out, and she blinked thoughtlessly as her mouth went slack.
Aleck wiped the drool from her bottom lip and helped her up. She blushed all the while as consciousness returned to her, legs rubbing together. "Th-thank you," she mumbled, barely a whisper in her shy excitement.
"Tell me what you learned," Aleck said evenly.
...
When the maid was done spilling everything she was told to pass on to him, Aleck took out the rest of his frustration by completely scrambling her mind. She was reduced to a writhing, babbling mess on the floor who had no control over her own body. He then called in another maid to take her away to be sold off.
Sighing, he sat back down on his chair, which was the only thing left undisturbed in his study. He contacted those that mattered: his head of research, the primary medical team, his highest elite, and his most trusted: Ricardo Orwell.
"We'll have to skip the city, Mr. Orwell. Our remaining branches are few, and we'll soon be beset by enemies beyond our league. Even if we survive, Sionis will eliminate us."
"The eggheads just confirmed I'm ready and in peak condition," Orwell responded. "Are you sure we can't take the fight? With me and the elites, we should be able to hold our own. Even that new meta-vigilante that Walker keeps going on about won't stand a chance."
Aleck shook his head despite his lonesome. "No. You don't understand what Sionis is capable of. I realize this now. I don't know everything, but the connections he's had that have been stripped away? They were only distractions. Lizard's tails. That includes us."
"Well, damn... have you gathered everyone yet?"
"No, but you're my third-to-last call. All that's left are Walker and the girls. We have maybe two days. Best use the next twenty-four hours to get ready, then escape at the next nightfall."
"I'll grab the girls for you," said Orwell. "You handle that bug and get your last prize."
"One last thing," Aleck said in a hurry. "Leave Miss Watson to me. She'll be imperative to collecting Miss Steele to take with us."
"Understood," Orwell replied with finality. "Demolisher, out."
—=—=—=—=—=—=—=—
[A/N]: Coming to a temporary close soon, which will be a month-long break. I'll spend that time outlining the next volume so I can tell a tighter story than the mess I made through writing and learning on the go.
In the meantime, I'll work on another fic as well. I've discarded the idea of the Narutoverse Isekai + Mui Tenpen and Muryoku Tensei—at least, for the time being [nobody voted, anyway TωT]. I'll do another Gotham isekai, set way back in time where Batman still has the Jaylad. The Jaybird. The one whom Robin gives magic. And Barbara as Batgirl.
The protagonist for that fic? Some kid on his deathbed who becomes Viktor fucking Creed when he gets to DC. A younger version, but no less dangerous with his potential.
I'll call that fic "Gotham's Sabretooth." Stay tuned.